Due to the freezing of game licensing in China, the publisher Tencent has been losing money almost all of last year. Now he is looking for a way to boost his gaming business. Tencent sees the way out in the introduction of the Season Pass into its key titles.
The publisher’s strategy was prompted by the successes of foreign Fortnite and PUBG Mobile, whose authors receive a good income from “seasonal passes”. Tencent reports this in its statement, Pocket Gamer writes.
We are at an early stage of experimenting with Season Pass in some of our key titles in China — for example, in CrossFire Mobile, Honor of Kings and QQ Speed Mobile.
Another way to compensate for Tencent’s losses after 2018 is the recent release of the battle royale Game for Peace in China. It replaced the Chinese version of PUBG Mobile, which the publisher canceled. Game for Peace has already registered a large income in the first days after the release: $14 million in just three days.
Tencent results for the 1st quarter of 2019
The nine-month break in game licensing really affected Tencent’s gaming revenue in a bad way. In the first quarter of 2019, the publisher’s revenues fell year-on-year:
- from online games – by 1% to $4.1 billion;
- from mobile games — by 2% to $3.1 billion;
- from desktop games — by 2% to $2 billion.
Nevertheless, mobile and desktop games brought in more revenue than a quarter earlier. The first grew by 11%, the second — by 24%.
In addition, both revenue and profit of all Tencent lines in total increased by 16% year-on-year. They amounted to $12.7 billion and $4.1 billion, respectively.
Also on the topic: